The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas

Janet Aldridge

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• Publié par: fewyeg
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 27
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas, by Janet Aldridge This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas Author: Janet Aldridge Release Date: February 3, 2005 [eBook #14889] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEADOWBROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS*** E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Emmy, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas OR Fun and Frolic in the Summer Camp By JANET ALDRIDGE Author of The Meadow-Brook Girls Across Country , The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat, etc. Illustrated Philadelphia Henry Altemus Company 1913 "I go, I thtay!" CONTENTS CHAPTER I. CRAZY JANE'S WILD DRIVE II. WHAT HAPPENED TO TOMMY III. THE TRAIL TO CAMP WAU-WAU IV. IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST V. THEIR TROUBLES MULTIPLY VI. TAKING THEIR FIRST DEGREE VII. TOMMY HAS A NIGHTMARE VIII. A DAY WITH AN EXCITING FINISH IX. SOUNDING THE GENERAL ALARM X. AROUND THE COUNCIL FIRE XI. TRIED BY THE FLAMES XII. HARRIET TURNS THE TABLES XIII. THE CAMP GETS A SURPRISE XIV. CRAZY JANE IS INTRODUCED XV. THE GHOST OF WAU-WAU XVI. THE LAYING OF A SPOOK XVII. THE SOUP THAT FAILED XVIII. AN "HONOR" FAIRLY LOST XIX. WHEN THE STORM BROKE XX. THE FALL OF A FOREST KING XXI. A DAY OF EXCITEMENT XXII. SLUMBERS RUDELY DISTURBED XXIII. HARRIET'S GRAVE MISTAKE XXIV. CONCLUSION The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas CHAPTER I CRAZY JANE'S WILD DRIVE "Tommy, what are you doing?" demanded Margery Brown, shaking back a lock of unruly hair from her flushed face. "Conthulting the Oracle," lisped Grace Thompson, more familiarly known among her friends as Tommy. "I should think you would prefer to cool off in the shade after that climb up the hill. I'm perishing. If you knew what sight you are you'd come in out of the sun, wouldn't she, Hazel?" Hazel Holland regarded Margery solemnly. "You are a sight yourself, Buster. Your face is as red as a beet. I wish you might see yourself in a looking glass." Buster tossed her head disdainfully. "I'm not a sight," she declared. "I'll leave it to Tommy if your face isn't positively crimson." But Tommy was too fully absorbed in her present occupation to give heed to the remark. "I'm sorry Harriet isn't here," continued Hazel, seeing that Tommy had not heard her. "Why isn't she here?" asked Margery. "Harriet is helping her mother," replied Hazel. "She always has something to do at home. She is a much better girl than either you or I, Buster. Harriet is always thinking of others instead of herself." "Well, she's older. She is sixteen and I am only fourteen. By the time I'm her age I will settle down, too," declared Margery wisely. "Wearing spectacles and darning socks," smiled Hazel. Margery shook her head vehemently. "Wouldn't it be awful!" she queried. "Oh, I am not so sure of that," replied Hazel. "I like to keep house. Every girl ought to know all about housekeeping. Do you know how to cook?" "No. I don't want to know either, not even plain cooking," retorted Margery. "Plain cooking may be all right for plain people, but——" "Buster!" rebuked Hazel. "I am amazed to hear you talk that way. That is like Crazy Jane. You don't want to be called another 'Crazy Jane,' do you? You will be if you persist in saying such silly things." "Why don't you lecture Tommy?" demanded Margery, her eyes snapping threateningly. "Tommy doesn't know a biscuit from an apple dumpling until she gets it in her mouth." "Tommy, please come in out of the heat," begged Hazel. "What are you doing out there?" "Telling my fortune," answered Tommy without raising her head from her task. Hazel observed that Tommy was pulling a daisy apart. A heap of daisies that she had pulled up by the roots, lay in her lap, regardless of the dirt that was accumulating on her stiffly starched white dress. One by one Tommy pulled the daisy petals from the flower, muttering rhythmically to herself. "Consulting the Oracle," sniffed Buster. "Did you ever hear of anything so silly? " "We all do silly things," answered Hazel wisely. "I go, I thtay; I go, I thtay; I go, I thtay; I go—Oh!" Tommy glanced up with an expression of disgust on her face. "Didn't it come out to suit you?" smiled Hazel Holland. "No," pouted Tommy, screwing up her small face. When animated, Grace's was an impish face, made more so by the upward tilt of a much freckled nose. "Go where?" I questioned Margery, now evincing a mild interest in Tommy's affairs. "To the thea thhore." "Oh, the sea shore," nodded Hazel. "Yeth. The daithy theth tho. I'm going with my father and mother. But I don't want to go. I want to thtay here with the girlth," pouted Tommy. "I should think you would be happy to think you are going to the sea shore. Most girls would be," reminded Hazel. "It must cost a lot of money to go to the sea shore," remarked Margery Brown. Tommy bobbed her head vigorously. "Yeth. My father hath lotth of money, I thuppothe. But I don't care. I don't want to go." "When do you go?" "I don't know, Hathel. The Oracle thayth I'm going." The Oracle having settled the question, no further doubts remained in the mind of little Grace Thompson. Grace's father was a lawyer. Both he and the girl's mother had inherited fortunes, and Grace being an only child had much, finer clothes than any of her companions in the little New Hampshire town of Meadow-Brook. Hazel Holland and Margery Brown were the daughters of village merchants, the former's father being a druggist, while the father of the latter owned a fairly prosperous grocery business. The fourth member of this little quartette, Harriet Burrell, was not so fortunately situated as were her three friends. Harriet's father was a bookkeeper in the local bank, and on his moderate salary was doing his best to give his daughter and younger son an education. His salary was barely sufficient to do this and at the same time support his family, small as it was. It was Harriet's ambition to go to college. She was now sixteen years old. In two more years she would finish her course at the high school. From that point on, the way did not look particularly bright, so far as continuing her education was concerned. In the meantime Harriet Burrell was living the wholesome life that her environment made possible. She was a strong, healthy, buoyant girl, full of life and spirits, popular with everyone who knew her, and a superior being in the estimation of the three girls who were her close friends, even though she was unable to dress as well as they or to do other things that were easily within the means of the parents of Grace, Hazel and Margery. The four girls were together much of the time, quarreling and making up almost in the same breath, even stubborn little Tommy giving way to the kinder and more mature disposition of Harriet Burrell. As Hazel had already said, Harriet at that moment was at home helping her mother, even though the fields, the trees and the nodding daisies were calling loudly to her. "Must you go if you do not wish to!" Margery was asking. "I gueth not; not if I don't want to, and I don't," declared Grace with emphasis. "She thinks she can have more fun with us four girls this summer. Still, she should go if her folks wish her to do so," nodded Hazel thoughtfully. "Don't you say so, Buster?" "No, I don't," declared Margery with some warmth. "In her place I should do just what I liked best. Then again, it wouldn't be fair for Tommy to go away like that and leave us all alone here to mope through the summer. That's right, Tommy. Tell them you won't go unless—unless you can take us along too." "Margery!" rebuked Hazel severely. "That wasn't a nice thing to say. That shows a selfish spirit. If Harriet were here I know she would tell you the same thing. I am sure you didn't mean it that way." "Harriet wouldn't," protested Buster. "She doesn't put on a solemn face and read people lectures. No, Hazel Holland, she doesn't do anything of the sort. There's some one coming," exclaimed the girl, suddenly changing the subject. "I see her. It is Miss Elting," answered Hazel, her eyes growing bright. "She is coming up to see us, I do believe." "Yeth, it'th Mith Elting," decided Grace, screwing up her little face and looking inquiringly at the newcomer who was leisurely making her way along the road in their direction. 441 wonder what she wantth." "Miss Elting is coming up to join us, of course," replied Hazel. "And you see if she doesn't have something fine to suggest. Harriet is going to miss something, I know." Miss Elting was one of the younger teachers in the Meadow-Brook High School, a leader in the girls' sports and very popular with them. But of all the pupils in the school her favorites were perhaps the four girls to three of whom the reader already has been introduced. Miss Elting called them "The Little Big Four." The young teacher exerted a great influence over the four MeadowBrook Girls; she had been especially helpful to Harriet and a closer relation than that of teacher and pupil existed between the two. Both were passionately fond of Nature. They loved the fields, the woods and the waters and many a care-free happy hour they had spent together in the open. Hazel, Margery and Grace frequently accompanied them, though in such instances Harriet and Miss Elting usually found it necessary to cut short their outing because Margery "got all flustered up" from the heat and Tommy's feet usually hurt her. They had recognized Miss Elting approaching some distance down the road that lay at the foot of the hill upon which the three girls had gone to spend a few leisure hours. "Hoo-oo!" called Hazel, springing up and waving her handkerchief to attract Miss Elting's attention. The teacher saw t